Yesterday I made some changes in the way I run my business. They’re not significant changes in many ways but in others they will make positive differences for my clients, my prospects and my readers. Hopefully, HUGE ones! There will be more tips, more strategies, more inspirational stories and more ways for you to read, listen, watch and get involved and get better results in your sales and in your life.

One of the things I am going to do more of this year is blog posting. I already do quite a lot some might say but it’s something that I enjoy and I know that it is one of the key ways that I add value for my clients and my prospects. As a motivational speaker, I have a lot of conversations on a daily basis to help individuals to improve their motivation, their focus, their sales and their businesses. Few of these ever see the light of day but yesterday I had a casual conversation with Rob Scott of Aaron Wallis and he posted our conversation. I thought I would do likewise.

GAVIN (TWEET): Welcome to 2012! Ignore doom-mongers & naysayers! Have dreams, set goals, take action.. make it a great one! Lots of great stuff coming this year… I have good feelings about 2012! You?!!

ROB: I always have good feelings – not much point in being any other way as there’s not a lot that little old me can do about the world’s finances!

GAVIN: I always have good feelings too however it is nice when they come to light! Personally, I think there is little wrong with the world’s finances that a dose of realism and hard work wouldn’t sort out!!

ROB: The FTSE is up 2% so far today – that’s 40% of the loss in 2011 gained in just one day – will this be in the news tonight? Probably not!

GAVIN: Agreed. We ought to spend more time being more positive and asking…

• What do we do well?
• What do others do well?
• What should we be doing well?
• How can we add massive value?

The whole of the West strikes me as bi-polar…. Manically depressive one day and manically up the next BUT at all times, with little handle on the reality of our situation. We need to make massive changes but we’re either crying and moaning about our lot or being extremely arrogant about being “right”.

Let’s start with positivity and hard work and then look for opportunities to add value… Oh, strange… that’s what I do… and you too!!

(ROB as editor) I just found this so true that I had to publish it – hope you enjoy it too!

So, there we are. Three little words that could change your, our, the whole world’s lot in 2012. But will they? How many people will maintain their positivity in the face of business and economic challenges? How many people will do the work necessary to create the opportunities they crave? And how many people will make and take chances to add huge value for their clients, their communities and their families and friends?

I can’t answer that question but I can tell you I will. You with me?

Related posts:

1. What Are Your Goals And Dreams For 2011
2. Take Stock, Take Charge & Take Action!
3. Why People Don’t Set Goals When They Know That They Should

Why do some people achieve so much more than others? Why do some people seem to have all of the time in the world to get things done whilst others constantly seem to be frazzled? How can some people win new clients every month, service existing clients amazingly, manage sales teams, become industry go-to resources, deliver awesome lectures, write books, climb mountains, run marathons, have fabulous social activities? And live the life of their dreams as well?

And yet others struggle to remove themselves from firefighting, admin and dealing with challenges and spend their mornings, noons and evenings glued to their email?

It’s an important question. It might be one of the most important. Ultimately, you will be defined by what you do and by what you achieve not by how busy you are!

Being busy is not the same as being successful. Working hard is not the same as working smart. Putting the hours in is pointless if you’re working on the wrong activities.

When I work with businesses I see busy people, energetic sales teams and frantic business leaders. I see many, many people working hard to “get things done”…

But “getting things done” is sometimes not the same as achieving your objectives!

My lifelong passion is all about understanding what differentiates top performers and then helping others to achieve it too. What makes one person a sales superstar and another a sales wannabe? What empowers one person to be a rock star presenter and another a washout? What is it that enables one leader to lead their team to “victory” whilst another couldn’t lead theirs to the pub?

And one of the key differences is that top performers spend more time working on activities that lead to results.

Simple truth…

If two people of equal ability, passion and knowledge work the same market in the same way but one spends 50% of their time on activities that lead to results and the other only spends 25% then the first one will outperform the second one. Every time.

This is simple and obvious and yet it is not something which drives many peoples’ behaviours. Over time, most people fall into habits…

We do things because “we should”, we do things because “we always have”, we do things because “that’s the way others do it”, we do things because “we were told to”…

But we ought to be doing things because they get us the results that we want.

Here are 3 simple steps to get you more of the results that you want in your sales, in your business and in your life…

Step 1: Take stock.

Ask yourself what results you want and then work out what activities directly lead to those results. Map how you spend your time… How much time do you spend on these results based activities versus how much time do you spend doing other things?

Step 2: Take charge.

Commit time to results based activities. Protect this time. Make it sacrosanct. Do not be distracted. Drop “time-wasting” activities, stop acts of procrastination and learn to say “No” (to yourself and others).

Know that everybody has the same amount of time in a day and how you spend yours is down to you.

 Step 3: Take action.

Make it happen. Change happens in an instant. How you spend your time will determine your results so take action now to get on the road to the results that you want.

And finally, be your own coach, assessing how you do, refining your approach and holding yourself accountable.

And here’s the magical thing. This is a never-ending process because the more successful you are, the more you have to work on this process and the greater the opportunities are to improve.

Let me know how you get on…

Related posts:

1. On Fast Food, Sales Training & Getting The Winning Edge
2. The Sales Apprentice 2009: Sales Training Tips From The Hit TV Show, Week 12, The Final
3. What Would You Achieve If You Knew You Couldn’t Fail?

About 6 months ago I went to put on a suit that I hadn’t worn for a while and it was pretty tight, I can tell you! The sad fact hit me that over the months and years I’d put a bit of extra weight on. I realised that I had fallen into a pattern of eating and exercising that was not supporting me in achieving my health and fitness goals. And like most people I had some good excuses… “It’s hard to get a healthy meal when you’re stuck at an airport late at night”, “Everyone puts on a little weight as they get older”, “I don’t have the time to exercise.” But these are just that, excuses. So I made a decision…

A decision to do something about it, a decision to eat a little less, a decision to avoid fatty foods when away from home, a decision to change my exercise regime. A decision to change things for the better. And, as a result, I lost weight.

Many people ask me how I lost that weight. Many people tell me that they’d like to lose weight. Many people tell me that they had been trying to lose weight for ages. And many people talk about losing weight and getting fitter as if it is the hardest thing in the world to do. But, in reality, all it requires is…

An awareness that you need to do something + a desire and a decision to do something + consistent action (in this case… eat less, exercise more).

In other words, not rocket science.

As an author and speaker, I meet a lot of sales and business people who are not achieving what they want in their lives. They are settling for okay when they could be doing OKAY! They are accepting that their businesses or their sales approaches are a little flabby yet they are either not aware of this or are not prepared to make the decision and take the action necessary to change it.

Whatever you are doing right now, just stop for a minute and think about these serious questions…

Where are you accepting results in your life that are less than what you want and deserve? When will it be time for you to make a decision to do things differently? What one area of your business or your life could you take action on today that would make a radical difference for you? Why not share your thoughts below?

Related posts:

1. Cold Calling Article In Winning Edge Magazine
2. How To Destroy Sales Rapport Real Fast!
3. Sales Training Tips From A Golf Pro… Tony Westwood Speaks With Motivational Speaker Gavin Ingham

One of my core beliefs is that you can learn powerful lessons everywhere if you are prepared to look for them. Many of the most powerful sales training lessons and business growth strategies that I have learnt, discovered and created originated from places you might not have expected! The other day I was approached by a Head PGA Golf Professional, NLP Sports & Master Practitioner, Qualified Hypnotherapist and Professional Speaker by the name of Tony Westwood who wanted to tell me about what he did. We had an interesting chat about performance and motivation and I asked him to share a few thoughts with you about peak performance and how it applies to golf, sales, business and life..

Tony, thanks for taking the time to talk with me. Tell me, what exactly do you do…
Using golf as a metaphor for sports, business and life, I help individuals and teams to play closer to their true potential. By helping them to LEARN through PLAY, creating AWARENESS, UNDERSTANDING and improving COMMUNICATION with themselves and others.

Wow! What qualifications and credentials do you have that help you do that?
I qualified as a PGA Golf Professional in 1988 having turned professional in 1985. In the last ten years I have added NLP Sports & Master Practitioner, qualified as a Hypnotherapist and studied extensively in the field of Personal Development. The journey has been and is amazing and I believe we can achieve so much more both individually and collectively.

Have you worked with anyone famous and what was your best result?
I played nine holes of golf with Sir Clive Woodward after writing him a letter and telling him about my approach and while he was working at Southampton FC. He loved the concept and his golf improved during the time we spent together. I am currently working with a lady who has reduced her handicap by ten shots after just two classes and at least six junior golfers I worked with when I was the County Coach for Leicestershire are now professional golfers themselves. On a regular basis when working individually with clients they tell me how my golf coaching has made an impact in other areas of their life either personally or professionally.

How similar are dealing with performance issues with golfers and say salespeople?
For me very similar. The golfer and the salesperson need to PLAN and be fully PREPARED for what they want to achieve. The golfer has to LISTEN and OBSERVE what is happening to the ball much like the salesperson has to observe their client listening intently. Focusing on every step of the round or the sale, enjoying what they are doing, MOTIVATED and COMMITTED. The golfer or salesperson needs to show and be their best self. I recently worked with the coach of the Portuguese Sevens rugby squad before they headed off to Dubai and South Africa for tournaments and I asked him to ask his team to show and do their best and at the end of every game to be able to say they could have done no better, regardless of the result.

A salesperson getting thrown an objection or being openly rejected is like falling a few shots behind and then driving into a bunker! They know that they need to relax and focus on the next swing but they just can’t. They’re tense. What tips would you give them to help them focus?
Every shot or sale is an opportunity to LEARN, whether the result is what you wanted or not. Either way understand what happened, what was said and as an objection or rejection and look at what could be done or said differently next time. Focus on matching the clients physiology as they are talking and really listening and breathing. If you BELIEVE in what you are saying and doing, you can do more and maybe the client saying no means they are are just not ready to say YES yet.

When you’re coaching you will come across players with mental ceilings (e.g. “I am not a scratch player”). Salespeople have very similar ones such as, “I cannot sell X amount of services.” What advice would you give to people to help them to blast through their glass ceilings and achieve better results than ever before?
My focus with everyone is that if you can do it once, you can do it again, once you have ingredients and the recipe you can create it whenever you want. Sometimes it is just a case of challenging the golfers or salespersons BELIEFS and getting them to reworking them so they serve them positively rather than limiting them. Breaking a round of golf into manageable “chunks” works very well and the same works in sales. The secret is find out what works and keep doing it. If it is not working do something else and keep doing something else until you find out what does. With EXPERIENCE, making mistakes and LEARNING from them a great round of golf or a great sale can always be made.

Any other tips for being a general top performer?
BE YOU! Be comfortable and professional in everything you do. Successful people in any line of work do the things that other people do not like to do even though they do not like doing them themselves. Persistence is key. If you are not getting the results you want find someone who is and copy and learn from them and make it yours. Perfect practice makes perfect, rehearse what you want to happen and be flexible in your approach. Just like a golfer has to have a vast array of shots to deal with any occurrence on the golf course as a salesperson if you have listened well you can prepare for those objections in advance.

Tony can currently be found at Academia do Clube Nacional de Golfe, Pestana Beloura, Cascais, Portugal and online here http://golfbiznlife.wordpress.com and here http://westwoodgolfacademy.blogspot.com.

This might well be he last post this year from me so have a great Christmas, spend time with your dear ones, relax, refresh and get ready for an awesome 2011.

Related posts:

1. Audio Interview Of Sales Motivational Speaker Gavin Ingham On ExpertsOnline.tv
2. Motivational Speaker Gavin Ingham Interviews Goal Setting Expert Andy Smith
3. See Motivational Speaker Gavin Ingham Live At The Selling Show, 28th & 29th October 2008

One of my sales training articles has again been picked up by Better Business Focus magazine, this time in the October issue. Better Business Focus concentrates on how succesful businesses in the UK compete and manage their organizations.

This month’s sales training article from me is my No Fear Cold Calling sales training tips and is feature alongside…

• Survival of the Fittest by Steve Smith
• Stop Chasing Your Tail & Get Real Results by Lorraine Pirrihi
• No Fear Cold Calling by Gavin Ingham
• Bestseller Business Books
• Hairdresser Gives Free Hair Cuts in Pub, What Are You Doing? By John Stanley
• Competitor Annihilation – Nelson Style by Philip Foster
• A Marketer’s Dream by Barry Urquhart
• Emotional Intelligence by Martin Pollins
• Six Steps to Improve Your Sales Results by Bryan McCrae
• All About a Bit of Give & Take by Andy Bounds
• 6 Ways to Cut Costs

Follow this link to read the full Beter Business Focus magazine.

Better Business

Related posts:

1. Sales Training & Business Tips From Better Business Focus Magazine
2. Sales Training Tips From Better Business Focus Magazine
3. Better Business Focus: Weathering The Storm